A large group of chickens scattered across a field, pecking and roaming freely.

Sustainable Agriculture

Trends in food production, agribusiness, and energy are driving the need for significant infrastructure investment across the food and agriculture value chain. Proterra intends to be the premier investment partner for evolving agribusinesses seeking institutional capital.

INVESTMENT THESIS

Proterra’s Sustainable Agriculture (“SAF”) strategy pursues equity investments in North American agriculture, targeting middle-market primary production companies and operating infrastructure we believe to be profitable, scalable, and sustainable. SAF’s investment strategy is rooted in the belief that trends in food, renewable bioenergy, and primary production will drive the need for significant infrastructure investments across the agriculture value chain.

Our Strategy

A man closely inspecting plants in a crop field, carefully examining their growth.

Demonstrated Demand

Consumer and industry demand regarding animal welfare, environmental practices, food supply transparency, and renewable bioenergy have pushed agribusiness companies to make commitments requiring significant investments in infrastructure.

Offtake Agreements

Long-term offtake agreements support and de-risk investments. Current portfolio companies have secured agreements with key players such as Costco, Michael Foods, Target , and Walmart.

An Underserved Sector

Middle market primary production agriculture companies have limited financing options. The sector is underfunded and institutional equity capital is limited, providing ample opportunity for specialist investors with an established network and deep sector knowledge.

Investment Areas

Sustainable Food Production and Animal Welfare:

Investments in producers and operating infrastructure advancing animal welfare and sustainable production across our food system. Focused on the conversion of traditional production assets to sustainable, welfare-enhancing alternatives, and expansion of existing sustainable production.

Cage-Free, Organic, and Specialty Egg Production

Broiler Welfare (Better Chicken Commitment)

Humanely Raised Pork

A dozen eggs neatly arranged in a carton.

A box made from agricultural waste byproducts, filled with wood chips.

Sustainable Bioenergy and Agricultural Waste Byproducts:

Investments in new and existing agribusiness and production infrastructure enabling the conversion of agricultural waste and byproducts to renewable bioenergy and sustainable products. Focused on significantly reducing methane emissions and achieving decarbonization results.

Renewable Natural Gas and Sustainable Biofuels

Agricultural Fiber Packaging

Organic Fertilizer and Other Coproducts

Special Opportunities:

When supported by long-term contracts from leading customers, Proterra’s Sustainable Agriculture investment team will explore non-core investments in industries where market conditions have created unique opportunities to deploy capital toward best-in-class sustainable agribusinesses with competitive entry valuations and asymmetric return potential.

Background

Why Proterra Sustainability?

Our Unique Offering

The Sustainable Agriculture team is committed to value-oriented investing. Profitability, stability, downside protection, and asymmetric return opportunity is paramount to the team’s investment process.

Investing in agriculture requires significant domain expertise and an expansive proprietary network. With more than a decade of experience investing in many of agriculture’s most complex global markets, the Proterra team applies leading agribusiness expertise and years of experience to each investment.

Proterra is a dedicated, sector-focused, value-add partner. We are hands-on, engaged, and unafraid to get our hands dirty. Proterra portfolio companies know that our teams are uniquely capable of addressing agriculture’s challenges and opportunities, and we work tirelessly to achieve positive outcomes.

Proterra firmly believes that proprietary, network-driven sourcing is critical to seeing the best opportunities and buying well. Agriculture is a relationship business, and premier assets frequently change hands off-market and outside the view of traditional investment firms.

Our Portfolio

Willamette Egg Farms

Egg production operation serving the Pacific Northwest Region. Based in Washington and Oregon, Willamette Egg Farms manages two feed mills and three egg-laying farms - all of which having been converted to cage-free or organic environments. Investment made in partnership with Versova. Key customers include Costco, Michael Foods, and Walmart.

Central Valley Eggs (CVE)

CVE was founded in 2016 and is one of the largest cage-free egg production and processing facilities in the country, located in the heart of California’s Central valley.

The company produces, grades, packages, and sells exclusively cage-free fresh shell eggs to major food service companies and retailers in California.